Katie Maunder, a Year 8 student, was invited to St James’s Palace this week to be presented her Bronze iDEA Award from the Duke of York. The iDEA programme is a new initiative, aimed at students and adults, to help them improve their digital skills and understanding. Katie was one of the first students in the UK to achieve the Bronze Award.
‘I found the iDEA programme an absolutely amazing idea. I never thought that I would be going to St James’s Palace when I did my first badge, but here I am. I loved working through most of the badges from different aspects of technology; such as learning how to edit a video or what makes a good digital profile. They were all very interesting and intellectual at the same time, so I didn’t want to stop doing the badges. I particularly liked the more creative badges, like the one teaching you how to make your own simple game, as you could personalise it in any way and it was fun to play the end result.
‘I also felt a sense of satisfaction when I completed the badges, as each badge is worth 10-20 points and all of these points contribute to the Bronze award. I also found these activities addicting in a way, as when you complete one you just want to do another. I found it incredible how much you learn from each badge, which dont take you too long to finish. This whole experience has made a huge impact on me as I’ve always really wanted to be a vet but now I’ve realised there is a huge opportunity in integrating technology to enhance this.
‘Overall, I recommend anyone from any age to try and do some of these badges as they teach you very valuable skills, and they could be extremely useful one day. Now that I’ve done the Bronze badge, I plan on doing the Silver and Gold badges when more badges come out in the future, as I hope to learn more useful skills. I think that iDEA should be part of the school curriculum as it is a fun new way to learn technology, and it is a simple website to use.’
Katie Maunder (Year 8)
Read more about the iDEA award: https://idea.org.uk
